In Ansible loop, test existence of files from registered results - ansible

Question

I have several files that I need to backup in different directories. I have tried the code below and not working for me.
vars:
file_vars:
- {name: /file1}
- {name: /etc/file2}
- {name: /etc/file/file3}
tasks:
- name: "Checking if config files exists"
stat:
path: "{{ item.name }}"
with_items: "{{ file_vars }}"
register: stat_result
- name: Backup Files
copy: src={{ item.name }} dest={{ item.name }}{{ ansible_date_time.date }}.bak
with_items: "{{ file_vars }}"
remote_src: yes
when: stat_result.stat.exists == True

Answer 1

The problem is the condition
when: stat_result.stat.exists == True
There is no attribute stat_result.stat. Instead, the attribute stat_result.results is a list of the results from the loop. It's possible to create a dictionary of files and their statuses. For example
- set_fact:
files_stats: "{{ dict(my_files|zip(my_stats)) }}"
vars:
my_files: "{{ stat_result.results|json_query('[].item.name') }}"
my_stats: "{{ stat_result.results|json_query('[].stat.exists') }}"
Then simply use this dictionary in the condition
when: files_stats[item.name]
Below is a shorter version which creates the dictionary more efficiently
- set_fact:
files_stats: "{{ dict(stat_result.results|
json_query('[].[item.name, stat.exists]')) }}"

Answer 2

Please try using below worked for me:
---
- name: Copy files
hosts: localhost
become: yes
become_user: root
vars_files:
- files.yml
tasks:
- name: "Checking if config files exists"
stat:
path: "{{ item }}"
with_items: "{{ files }}"
register: stat_result
- name: Ansible
debug:
msg: "{{ stat_result }}"
- name: Backup Files
copy:
src: "{{ item }}"
dest: "{{ item.bak }}"
with_items: "{{ files }}"
when: stat_result == "True"
and files.yml will look like:
---
files:
- /tmp/file1
- /tmp/file2
you can check you playbook syntax using below command:
ansible-playbook copy.yml --syntax-check
Also you do dry run your playbook before actual execution.
ansible-playbook -i localhost copy.yml --check